Fatoni in My Memory
2018 | 7 min
History is Memory, Injustice is Never Peaceful.
Many Thai citizens know little about the real experiences of people in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces. The region has been plagued by a simmering violent conflict since at least 2004, yet mainstream media in Thailand has often presented a simplified and even biased picture of events. To address such misrepresentation of the issue, MRG, in conjunction with IDIO Films and Fatoni Films, present two short documentaries that tell the real stories of people living in Thailand’s deep south.
The region of Thailand currently known as the Southern Border Provinces, encompassing the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla, was once an independent Muslim sultanate known as Patani or Fatoni, before it was annexed to Thailand by the British in 1909.
Fatoni In My Memory explores ideas of historical injustice, especially the destruction of the region’s cultural artefacts by the Thai state, and traces them to the modern-day conflict that continues to wage unabated between a separatist movement and the Thai state authorities. As the government has made little progress in realising the rights of the Malay Muslim minority, particularly cultural, linguistic, religious, civil and political rights, the denial of these rights is manifested in a conflict that targets civilians. While the Thai government has for decades taken a largely assimilationist approach to the region, the identity of the people of Patani cannot be erased, and the people will not forget their history.
